Content

This unit explores the two main areas of long-form journalism: investigative journalism and literary journalism. It is for students who want to extend their writing skills and abilities through research-based writing.

The essential difference between investigative and literary journalism is that the former is research-based reporting that seeks to reveal as aspects of contemporary reality that are often contentious, while the latter utilises the techniques of fictional writing to pursue a journalistic aim, producing what is in effect ‘creative non-fiction’. As is plain from this there can be considerable overlap in the forms yet in this course we will treat them as separate while acknowledging their relatedness.

This unit situates the two forms squarely within journalistic practice and history, and introduces students to the role that research and technique play in the long-form storytelling. Throughout the course we will read and critically engage with relevant academic literature as well as outstanding examples of long-form journalism from the past and as it is currently practiced today in Australia and elsewhere.